(The Center Square) – There are more than a few questions about the potential for voter fraud as Wisconsin looks to expand absentee voting this fall.
The Wisconsin Election Commission met Wednesday to talk about the plan to mail 2.7 million absentee ballot applications to voters in the state.
All six of the state's commissioners agree that it's a good idea. But there isn't much agreement on just how to do it.
The Republican-appointed commissioners say they are worried about the potential for voter fraud.
"I think we were wise when we voted not to send this letter to the 160,000 so-called movers," Commissioner Bob Spindell said. "Because wherever that ended up, somebody could fill it out and send it in. And we would have a ballot come back."
Those 160,000 movers are what's left of nearly 200,000 people who could be removed from Wisconsin's voter rolls because they've either moved, haven't voted in years, or have not updated their registration.
Still, Spindell said there is a risk in blindly sending the paperwork to vote absentee to almost every other voter in the state.
"Seems to me we have such an easy thing to fill out," Spindell told commissioners. "Knowing the person in the next apartment died, I could fill out for this and get something back."
Spindell said state law requires the Wisconsin Election Commission to take every precaution it can against voter fraud.
Commissioner Dean Knudson said that is why it is important to clarify the absentee ballot application wording of who is an "indefinitely confined voter."
"I was bothered by the language where it said 'Voters may have a difficult time getting to the polls.' That is not what the indefinitely confined statute is about," Knudson said.
The question of who is an "indefinitely confined voter" is an issue after clerks in Milwaukee and Madison encouraged people who didn't want to vote in-person in the April election because of the coronavirus to declare themselves confined. A judge later told the clerks to stop giving that advice.
The WEC is continuing to work on the absentee ballot mailer. The commission hopes to get that mailer in the mail by September.